Description

Located on the right side of the first buttress about 80 - 100 feet right of Dunn's Dihedral. Approach from the base trail up through the aspen trees to the start, you can't miss it. This aesthetic line ascends the prominent double-overhanging, left-facing, corner system through four roofs of increasing difficulty. This is a hard route that continues to challenge with progressively harder moves all the way to top. The top of the route overhangs the start by a good amount. Other than two old pins at the square cut roof, the gear is all trad and quite small at the crux which is a little run out but safe enough.

Descend by traversing the broken ledge system approximately 50 feet to the right until you can enter and descend a moderate chimney system that takes you back to the startof the route. An alternate choice would be to ascend one of the many fine second pitch routes above and walking off to the right.

Protection

A little bit of everything with a predominance of small wired pro through the crux. There are two fixed pins on the route; one old ring angle at the corner of the square cut roof and the other out left of the roof in a small flake. There is no fixed anchor at the top, but abundant opportunity for trad gear placements for an anchor.

A.C.: If you consider that Christine's Dream is at least a grade harder than Question of Balance and that it is substantially harder than anything on the Naked Edge or Country Club, what grade would you give it? When I put this route up in the seventies 5.12 was not a rating that was easily bandied about, so I called 5.11++. Since then, I have been informed by the few climbers who had managed a clean ascent that it was indeed 5.12 climbing. And yes, I did it in old EBs with a rack of hexes and stoppers and no chalk or spring loaded gear. So, call it what you want or call me ignorant, but I am genuinely proud of this route.

Taking a photo of yourself is simple. Phil just forgot who took it or where he got it, so he just entered his own name. In a book, they would label the photo "Phil Broscovak collection" but here we ain't so subtle.

O.K for the record... the error in not reporting the photographers' names was a data input goof. I would gladly change the info if I could as I admire and appreciate these friends who shot the pics.... The photo of Christines' Dream was taken with a telephoto lens by Gary Skipp....The photos of Question of Balance were taken by Greg Phillips.

Make up by Este Lauder, outfit by Dior, jewelry by Tiffany.

On a serious note and FYI, Sharp End Publishing will be producing a Taylor Canyon climbers guide authored by long time Gunny/Butte local Leo Maloy. Leo is a good man and the guide should be fairly comprehensive for the Gunnison / Crested Butte area. Look for it if you are at all interested in this wonderfull little cragging area.

There is much debate as to the difficulty of this route. Most of the gunny/cb sandbaggers call it 11+. If Hank and Phil both call it 12a, then I have to agree. After you climb it a few times it may feel 11+. A Taylor Canyon classic.

When I did the FA the rating of 5.12 didn't yet exist. Christine's was noticeably harder than anything else around so after great agonized debate I rated it 5.11++. It took a long time before it got a clean ascent by any one besides me. So, there was no opportunity for consensus on the difficulty. I remember desperately wanting someone to 2nd the route, but it turned back a lot of strong climbers even on TR. Eventually it got repeated, I think by Chris Begue, and some sense of the difficulty started to emerge. I was content to maintain the "sand bag" stiffness of Harmels ratings, but better climbers than I have told me that 5.12 is a legitimate rating for this route. Call it what you will, but if you don't like it, don't call me a sandbagger.

I tried to do this the day after my 18th birthday. The night before was spent with Doug Scott, as he continued his tireless mentoring of me in the ways of woman (I got slapped that night, much to Doug's delight), wine, and other important elements of being a good dirtbag climber of that era. Well, the climb didn't go too well. Way ahead of its time. Phil must have been firing on all cylinders the day he climbed it.

There was a period there where it seems like every time I went up to Taylor, Phil was up there pumping on this. He was a young man with a serious look to him in those days. When he finally sent this, he was less intense and broke into that patented Philo grin more easily. It definitely put him into the top echelon of Taylor dirtbags at that time :-)